Northern Mindanao’s economy expanded by 7.2% in 2014, up 7.2% compare to the 5.3% growth in 2013.
Region X was one of the top 5 fastest growing regional economies in the Philippines in 2014, vaulting from rank 11 in 2013 to rank 5 in 2014.
It was also one of the 8 regional economies which posted accelerated growth rates, improving by 1.9 percentage points from its recorded growth rate in the previous year.
In a press conference hosted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Region X at a downtown restaurant July 30, Eddie E. Nasol, PSA-10 interim regional director, said the expansion was attributed to the accelerated growth in the industry and service sectors.
Among the three major economic sectors, services grew the most (5.5 to 8 percent), followed by industry (6.8 to 9 percent) while AHFF retained its 3.2 percent pace from 2013.
“Services grew faster in 2014 (8% vs 5.5% in 2013); trade and repair accelerated from 3.9% in 2013 to 10.2% in 2014, and so on across the board,” Nasol said in his presentation.
The service sector was the largest contributor to the region’s economic growth in 2014 with 3.4 percentage points of the 7.2 percent growth for the period, followed by industry (3.1 percentage points) and AHFF with 0.88 percentage points.
The top three contributors among the region’s subsectors were construction (1.8 percentage points), trade (1.5 percentage points) and manufacturing (1.2 percentage points).
“The growth figures are consistent with the sectoral growth indicators we have gathered for Region X,” said Leon M. Dacanay, Jr., NEDA-X regional director in response to the PSA-10 presentation which was held simultaneously in all of the regions all over the country.
For instance, Mr. Dacanay cited the construction boom as evidenced by the 33.1 rise in the number of private construction building permits (floor area, square meters) from 547,991 in 2013 to 729,572 in 2014 as consistent with the PSA figures showing an upsurge in construction from 5.8 percent in 2013 to 29.3 percent in 2014. The construction surge was fueled in part by public works spending for which Region X had the highest allocation among all regions in 2014.
Overall indicators monitored by NEDA-X included Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) monitored investments soaring 28.8% from PhP13.342-billion in 2013 to PhP17.188-B in 2014; Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) monitored investments rising event faster by 55% from PhP539.58-million in 2013 to PhP 836.315-million; taxes keeping pace with an 18.1% increase from PhP8.156-billion in 2014 to PhP 9.634-B in 2013, and employment rising 4.4% from 1.968 million to 2.055 million.
Northern Mindanao had the second biggest Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in Mindanao (at constant 2000 prices) with PhP268.336-Billion, second only to Davao Region’s PhP281.515-B. It had a 25.9% share of the island’s economy, second to Davao’s 27.2%.
“Looking at the major sectors of the Mindanao economy, Region X retained the largest chunk of the total Agri, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF) of Mindanao with an increased share of 26.51% of the total,” Mr. Dacanay said. “However, it was only second to Davao in the industry sector (27.1%) and also second in the services sector, also to Davao (24.73% to 32.25%).”
Region X also ranked seventh among all regions and second in Mindanao with a Per Capita GRDP (in constant 2000 prices) of PhP 57,593 and 5.3% growth from the previous year.
In terms of percentage share of the Philippine economy, Northern Mindanao had the seventh biggest share at 3.75%, making it the seventh biggest regional economy in 2014.
Among the six regional economies of Mindanao, Normin contributed 1.87 percentage points to the island’s growth, following Davao Region which contributed 2.51 percentage points.
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